


The Party Don't Stop at Dawn

by FireEye



Category: Labyrinth (1986)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-23
Updated: 2018-10-23
Packaged: 2019-08-06 16:42:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 319
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16391360
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: The Fire Gang make a new friend.





	The Party Don't Stop at Dawn

**Author's Note:**

  * For [anaraine](https://archiveofourown.org/users/anaraine/gifts).



“Don’t you want to party with us, guy?”  The fluffy, fiery... _thing_ asks, grinning – or at least he thinks it’s grinning – at him amicably. 

“...uh...” he manages. 

“Who _doesn’t_ want to party?” chimes in one of the others.

His back hits a tree, and that’s about as safe as it gets in this place.  Not that he _feels_ safe.  There are three of them, and they have him surrounded.

“I _really_ need to, um...” he clears his throat.  In a moment of clarity, he manages, “I’ve got to make it to the center of the Labyrinth, you see and I... I’m...”

The attempt at a _polite_ extrication from what has become an utterly bizarre social entanglement falls on tonedeaf ears.

“Whatever you gotta do today can wait until tomorrow, right?”

“Isn’t that what they say?”

“Ha!  That’s what _I_ say!”

“C’mon, guy – just a couple of hours, say – you got this far, you earned it.”

He _is_ tired.  Maybe he should push on, but he could use the break.  Swallowing, he shrugs.  “I guess... maybe an hour, wouldn’t hurt.”

“Ha!” one postures, while the other two cackle, “Hear that?  He wants to party with us.”

“Who _doesn’t_?”

They take him by his hands, and lead him to the bonfire fire.  They feed him sweets, and hand him a drink that tastes of a deep, clouded summer night.

By morning, he’s forgotten why he’s there.

By evening, the party has resumed.

“I need to make it to the center of the Labyrinth,” he says, more to himself than to them.  The creatures chatter among themselves, then the first raises its mug after refilling his.

“To the center of the Labyrinth!”

He can’t not toast to that.  Soon, they’re toasting to the acorns in the fire and the gossamer of fairy’s wings.

By morning, he’s forgotten his own name.

By the end of the week, he’s forgotten he was once human.

**Author's Note:**

> For some reason, I always thought that nearly every step of the Labyrinth (excepting maybe some of the architecture), was someone either wished away or who had gotten trapped trying to solve the Labyrinth. It's most obvious with the Junk Ladies, who seem to get trapped in their own myopic worlds (and especially that one Junk Lady trying to 'help' Sarah by... making her into a Junk Lady herself - eep); likewise, I thought the Fire Gang were that kind of trap, too, just with a different focus (hedonism vs. ... materialism? or whatever).
> 
> Anyway, a thought for you. :)


End file.
